Jim Antle, the magazine executive editor, brings to life the pages of the Washington Examiner magazine in the show Inside Scoop. Each episode features exclusive insight from the article’s authors and expert analysis.
Jim Antle gives his take on Virginia Democrats redrawing congressional maps, potentially shifting representation from 6-5 to 10-1 in their favor.
“In the past, Virginia Democrats had to at least pretend they were sort of conservative, or at least different from the National Democratic brand,” Antle said. “That was certainly the case for Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, especially Jim Webb, and even as recently as former governor Ralph Northam.”
Despite Virginia’s historical conservative leanings, including Donald Trump’s nearly 47% vote share in 2020, the state may soon have only one Republican congressional seat. Antle questions whether Virginia will become permanently blue if the redistricting is allowed to pass.
“It seems that all Democrats running can be full on progressives,” Antle said. “They can even muse about shooting their Republican opponents and still win a statewide election.”
Next in the show, Jim Antle is joined by editorial director, Hugo Gurdon, to discuss the phenomenon of Democrats such as Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), running as centrists to win elections but then shifting left once in office.
“Abigail Spanberger is absolutely one of them, who pretend that they are in the middle, that they are centrist,” Gurdon said. “As soon as she was sworn into office, she became much more left-wing. She signed 16 supposed affordability bills into law, but they actually will make things more expensive. … There’s just a whole raft of things that she was doing which will push the prices up. On top of that, there are all sorts of left wing policies, like absolutely refusing to let the Virginia officials and agencies cooperate with the immigrant federal immigration authorities. And of course, the results of that have been disastrous.”
Gurdon suggests this strategy will continue, with Democrats balancing their base’s radicalism with centrist appeals to win elections.
“The Democrats’ base has become extraordinarily radical and left-wing. It’s actually kind of difficult for Democrats running at state level, and you know, eventually national level, to appeal widely and at the same time have their base enthusiastic,” Gurdon said. “Politicians who, like Spanberger, calculate that their best hope, with the constituency that they are seeking, is to run towards the middle.”
Antle is then joined by foreign policy reporter, Timothy Nerozzi, who noticed in a recent trip to Taiwan, that Western-style progressivism has begun to challenge its national identity. Historical figures such as Chiang Kai Shek, who is still commemorated with statues and memorial sites, has become a problematic figure.
“When you talk with Taiwanese officials, there’s this very sort of uncomfortable feeling when they’re discussing Chiang Kai Shek,” Nerozzi said. “In a similar way that we saw in America when we were talking about the founding fathers during sort of the 2010s and early 2020s where there was this sense of uncomfortableness about slavery or any other sort of historical ill that’s associated with those historical figures. And it was just a very interesting and very direct parallel that I was witnessing.”
Nerozzi spoke with Taiwanese defense experts who have concerns about their ability to defend themselves against China if their people lack a sense of pride in their country, and question if they are willing to fight.
“How many young, able-bodied men are going to be willing to be brought in, conscripted and fight for Taiwanese identity, against a hypothetical encroaching of the People’s Liberation Army from China if you’re undercutting the sense of pride in Taiwan,” Nerozzi said. “If you undercut that legacy, much like in America, you’ll see an undercut of civic pride, civic virtue, kind of a question of, like, what are we even doing here if we don’t believe in our own country, if we don’t even believe in our own history. Why do we even care about our future?”
Our in-depth report this week, by Michael M. Rosen, describes the war in Iran and how Israelis are experiencing it.
The Israeli military, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force and Navy, set out to destroy the regime of Iran.
Rosen explains that Israelis did enjoy a brief period of relief late last year following the Gaza ceasefire, but the air-raid sirens have come roaring back.
“Israelis have managed to endure even the latest unpleasantness with characteristic resilience,” Rosen said. “Life goes on as much as possible, given the circumstances.”
Rosen describes how those exercising must run laps within a radius of an accessible bomb shelter and visits to coffee shops, restaurants, and bars require knowing where the nearest bomb shelter lies.
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“Israelis have made bomb shelter lemonade out of lemons in other ways,” Rosen said. “Scenes of subterranean raves have permeated social media and one ever-hustling entrepreneur even developed an iPhone dating app that matches singles in public bomb shelters.”
Tune in each week at washingtonexaminer.com and across all our social media platforms to go behind the headlines in the Washington Examiner’s magazine show, Inside Scoop.